I'm a big fan of murder mysteries, especially the "cozy" type. I really enjoy the ones that have pets as characters, especially cats.

My mom introduced me to Lilian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who..." series with the two Siamese cats.

I also discovered:

Carol Nelson Douglas and Midnight Louie

Shirley Rousseau Murphy and Joe Grey

Rita Mae Brown (and Sneaky Pie Brown) and Mrs Murphy

These mostly feature cats but Mrs Murphy has a Corgi pal.

I also recently discovered Susan Conant and her Alaskan Malamute buddies. I'm more of a cat person but I enjoyed reading about her characters' lives with their dogs.

A while back I read another mystery where the main pet characters were Poodles but I can't remember the title or author...

Shelley Peterson also writes cool novels with animal characters in them - mostly horses and a rather cool coyote. Not quite mysteries but a lot of action in them and even a ghost or too (I don't like ghost stories per se but I didn't mind these ghosts lol).

I'm always up for new reading material -- can anyone recommend any more cozy pet mysteries? :) :cat: :dog:

Skryker

May 17th, 2007, 11:45 AM

Now you've got me curious-I'll be looking through the mystery section to see what I can find-the ones I know about are all on your list already.

Robert Heinlein had Pixel, the cat who could walk through walls, in some of his books, but that's science fiction.

I can't remember the author but Nick and Nora Charles had a corgi named Astrid-The Thin Man series, I think, from the 30s and 40s? Have to look that up.

There, I looked it up-it is The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett but he only wrote the one book. There were a series of movies and a TV show based on the characters, though.

Skryker

May 17th, 2007, 11:54 AM

The ones with poodles are by Laurien Berenson, and the main human is Melanie Travis.

There's also:

“An Alice Nestleton Mystery” Series
By Lydia Adamson

Alice is a struggling New York stage actress and intrepid cat sitter with a nose for murder. All of Alice’s mysteries somehow center on the involvement of a cat…and it takes a true cat person to catch the connection. The Alice Nestleton mysteries are quirky and fun, and sometimes even border on the mystical. Lydia Adamson, who also pens a mystery series starring veterinarian Dr. Nightingale, knows her animals!

this set that I could find.

Dogastrophe

May 17th, 2007, 12:09 PM

I can't remember the exact novel title, but one of the Kathy Reichs (sp?) books has quite a bit of mention of her Chow (the Chow discovers a body while they were at a picnic).

Skryker

May 17th, 2007, 12:12 PM

I've also found about a series of Egyptian mysteries by Elizabeth Peters. The main character is Amelia Peabody Emerson, and the cats are descendants of the sacred cats of Egypt.

Temperance Brennan, the character in the Kathy Reichs novels also has a cat named Birdie.

marsupial mama

May 18th, 2007, 11:03 AM

wow, you guys are amazing! I'll have plenty of happy hunting in the library with the list I am going to make from this thread. :cloud9:

Thank you, and if there are any more, please feel free to add... :thumbs up

Skryker

May 19th, 2007, 04:42 PM

Found another one-more cats. :D Seems mystery authors prefer cats.

Garrison Allen is the author, they are "Big Mike" mysteries.

SableCollie

May 22nd, 2007, 10:19 PM

I think all my favorites are listed here. I love books with animals as integral characters.

At one point I was the biggest Susan Conant fan. One day at work, I was flipping through the rolodex, and there was her number under malamute rescue! I kept hoping we'd get a malamute in so I'd have an excuse to call her and tell her how much I liked her books. But I don't think I would ever really make a fool of myself like that! :D The last time I looked, her card had disappeared.